They were once again on their
way, cloaking before takeoff. They detected no other ships in
the vicinity, aside from merchant ships on their normal
routes. No one said it, but they all suspected that they were
only getting so close because their enemy was allowing them
to.
Meta Knight put his hand to
Galaxia’s hilt, hoping the ancient soul within could offer
him some much-needed advice. It was silent. The sword rarely
spoke directly, normally appearing as a calm presence in his
mind. It was still a soothing feeling and he welcomed it.
He looked over as Kirby walked
into the room, face plainly showing his mood.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t
bring them,” Meta Knight said softly.
Kirby shrugged a little,
sitting down next to him.
The little Star Warrior was
quiet, only leaning against him slightly. It seemed being
there made him feel better. Meta Knight couldn’t very well
tell him to leave if that was what he wanted…
“You never used to want to be
around me, you know…” Meta Knight said.
“Meda never around…”
“…I suppose that’s true.”
He was quiet a moment. “Kirby…?” In the span of only a
few seconds Kirby had fallen asleep- and also wrapped himself
in Meta Knight’s cape. And Meta Knight didn’t really have
the heart to wake him.
Knuckle Joe leaned back in one
of the chairs on the bridge, staring out one of the side
windows, a half eaten snack on the ship’s controls next to
him. He was apparently so caught up in his own thoughts that
he didn’t notice Silica approaching until she was right next
to him.
“You’d better not get any
crumbs in there.”
Joe jerked forward with a
startled cry, nearly falling out of the chair. “Don’t do
that!”
She smirked. “Sorry. What’s
so interesting out there?”
He waved his hand. “Eh,
nothing. Just thinking.”
“Don’t hurt yourself kid…”
Joe lifted an eyebrow. “Kid?
I’m only a few years younger than you. You’re a ‘kid’
too.”
“Yeah yeah… You went
shopping while you were out?” she asked suddenly, noticing
his outfit.
Joe… might have blushed. “N-No.
It was a present.”
“Oh?” Silica grinned. “From
who?”
“An old friend…” he
mumbled.
“An old girlfriend maybe…?”
she teased.
“No… It’s nothing like
that.”
“Then what?”
“Maybe it’s none of your
business!” Joe exclaimed. “Sheesh… Just some guy who
helped me out a few years back.”
Silica was quiet for a moment
before shrugging. “Sorry for asking. You’ve been acting
weird since you got back.”
“Yeah, well, a lot’s
happened. Gimme a break.”
Silica left the room, leaving
Knuckle Joe as well as Sword and Blade who had been keeping an
eye on the ship’s readings as usual.
“I think she likes you,”
Blade piped up.
“Shut up,” Joe scowled. “What,
just because she’s a girl, we should hook up? She reminds me
too much of my aunt. She can go fu-”
“Hey, maybe we shouldn’t
start fighting amongst ourselves,” Sword interjected. “It’s
not good for morale.”
“Yeah, I guess…” Joe
said, spinning in the chair for a few moments before stopping
to face the two knights. He stared at them for a moment. “Can
I ask a personal question?”
They exchanged glances. “Ah…
how personal?”
“Not very… Just… Are you
two robots or something? Some kind of sentient suits of armor?”
It was very quiet for a long
time before the two of them burst into laughter. He couldn’t
say he’d ever heard them laugh either.
“What gave you that idea?”
Blade asked, leaning against the controls.
“Well… We’ve been on this
ship for days and I haven’t seen you guys without all the
metal yet,” Joe said. “Doesn’t it get uncomfortable?”
“We’re pretty used to it…
We’ve found it’s easier to keep it on instead of fumbling
around for it if there’s an attack or something,” Sword
explained.
Joe coughed. “You do take it
off to shower, right?”
“Oh, of course. It would be
silly not to,” Blade said.
“Right…” Joe spun in the
chair again. “Well, take off your helmets at least.”
The both stopped what they were
doing. “What?”
Joe frowned. “What, do you
have something to hide? They look goofy anyway. Come on.”
The two of them really weren’t
sure what to say, but then again they really didn’t have a
reason not to…
“You’re really insistent…”
Sword muttered, reaching up to undo the strap at his chin,
Blade doing the same. Joe glanced back out the window as he
waited. He half wondered what kind of bizarre alien races they
must be to always go around hidden like that…
He heard a clang. “All right,
happy now?” Blade asked.
“Yeah I-“ Joe turned,
sentence cut off as he actually saw him. “…You’re a kid
too! And a girl!”
“I’m not a girl,” Blade
snapped. He was far plainer looking that any of the strange
things Joe had imagined. He had soft features and tan-orange
skin, with long red hair pulled back into the ponytail that
Joe had assumed was part of the helmet.
“And we’re not that young…”
Sword added. “Our races age a bit slower than most. I guess…
in a way we’re close in age with you then.”
Joe didn’t say anything,
staring at him. Pale blue-gray skin, deep blue hair- lighter
than his… And two ridged ebony horns on the back of
his head. “You look like him…”
“Huh?” Sword looked
confused. “Like who?”
“N-Nothing,” Joe said
quickly. But even aside from that he knew he’d seen
Sword’s face before… but where? “Heh, I guess that
explains why you wear that weird helmet…”
Sword walked over to him, brow
furrowed. “You’ve seen someone that looks like me?”
“Well… Ah damnit that
reminds me… I needed to tell Meta Knight some things.
Important stuff, can’t wait!” Joe said hurriedly, rushing
from the room.
“…”
“Everyone’s going crazy,”
Sword said in disbelief, slumping into the nearest chair.
Blade stood to his side. “Is it just me?”
“No…” Blade smiled. “It’s…
not a good time for anyone right now…”
Sword reached for his helmet,
but Blade stopped him.
“You know, I think Joe’s
right. We wear them too much.”
“You’re going crazy too….”
Meta Knight looked over the
notes Joe had given him. “This is… impressive.” They
were in his quarters once again, the door closed. The papers
had notes about weapons shipments, locations of smaller bases-
it seemed too good to be true.
Joe grinned. “Yeah, Gardell’s
good with these sorts of things. Resourceful and all… He has
better connections than me.”
“It was kind of him to help
us like this… That is, providing all this is true…”
“It is. He’s trustworthy,”
Joe insisted. “He wouldn’t have any reason to lie.”
“I believe you; you would
know him better than I.” Meta Knight looked over the notes
for another moment. “Hm…”
“What is it?” Joe asked,
looking over his shoulder.
“He knows trade ship routes…
Including the ones that are supplying Nightmare’s bases.”
“Oh yeah, Gardell knows a lot
about different black market routes and stuff… What’s
important about that, though?”
Meta Knight traced his finger
over the words. “I have an idea…”
Silica was quiet, listening as
Meta Knight spoke. Joe stood nearby, with Kirby lying on his
head.
Meta Knight pointed to the star
chart on the main screen, with their current location and
their destination circled in red, their course marked by a
glowing line. Another course appeared coming from the right,
also going to the base.
“This is the course traveled
by several supply ships. According to Gardell’s notes, some
of them are also heading for Nightmare’s base. What we need
to do is intersect it and get on board.”
“They don’t know we have
this information about the ships. These merchants aren’t
supposed to be on that route, but they’re apparently being
paid well to supply them. We’ll adjust our course slightly
so we’ll meet up with them. Make it look like chance, and we’ll
make it look like we’re stopping them for extra supplies.”
“It could work,” she said
pensively. “And we could set this ship on the same course to
the base, so it should at least fool them for a while.”
“Since sneaking in is our
best chance…” Joe said, poking at Kirby. “Quit pulling
my hair.”
“Sowwy…”
“I guess…” Silica said
quietly. “Once we get there we can’t go in guns blazing.
We’ll need to find one of their guys and get information on
just where Nightmare is. If he’s even there.”
“He’s expecting us… He’ll
be there.” Meta Knight said, eyes down. He briefly wondered
what form their enemy would be in. Surely not the giant he had
appeared as last time, not with his power so depleted. Would
he have any form at all? Anything that could really be killed?
Or was this all only his influence still at work?
Silica nudged his arm, noticing
how quiet he’d become. “Hey. I’m… sorry for doubting
you before. This could work out…”
“Thank you. But we still all
have to consider the possibility that none of us will survive
this.”
“Way to be optimistic,” Joe
said, rolling his eyes. Meta Knight smiled wryly behind his
mask.
“I’m trying to be
realistic. This is far more dangerous now. Before we can even
face Nightmare, we’ll still have to deal with his new army.”
“Pssh, no problem,” the boy
said dismissively. “Can’t we just blow the place up like
last time?”
“We might. But we’ll need a
quick way out. There most likely won’t be an upload system
this time,” Meta Knight pointed out. “But unfortunately we
won’t know until we get there… Let’s look at this one
step at a time.”
“Yeah, like what about the
other ship’s crew? I bet they’d contact Nightmare about us
being there as soon as they could,” Joe said.
“That’s why we’ll tie
them up and shove them in a closet somewhere,” Silica
answered.
“Seems a bit harsh, but I
like how you think.”
“There are still a lot of
things we’ll need to work out…” Meta Knight said
thoughtfully. “But I suppose-“
They were interrupted then as
the door slid open. Silica jumped up as, unsurprisingly, she
didn’t recognize the red and blue haired boys standing
there.
Meta Knight stood up, confused.
“Sword, Blade, what’s wrong?”
Sword sighed, pushing the third
figure into view. Fumu looked less than thrilled, not meeting
any of their eyes.
“Fumu!” the three of them
exclaimed, while Kirby jumped up happily.
“We detected someone in the
loading bay… I have no idea how she got in without us
knowing…” Blade said, looking sheepish. “I guess it’s
sort of impressive that she could though…”
Meta Knight walked over to
them, looking at Fumu. “Where is your brother?”
“I left him with Jarle… I
overheard you talking about leaving us there.”
“Then you know why I chose
to.”
She looked up then, hands
clenched into fists. “You had no right to do that! I’m not
helpless, I can help too!”
“Fumu… I did it for your
own good,” His voice was strained. “Despite whatever
happened last time, this is going to be different. You are not
going to be able to defend yourself, and frankly we can’t
always be there to defend you. There’s a good chance all of
us could be killed, and you, without any training or weapons,
would be an easy target.”
Fumu stepped back slightly,
troubled by how coldly he was speaking. “Y-You gave me some
training though.”
“I did once, Fumu.
That was enough to deal with some bullies, but this is a
completely different level,” he said brusquely. “Do you
realize that we’re going to have more trouble having to
protect you now?”
“I don’t need to be
protected, I-“ she started, but Joe interrupted.
“Sorry to say this, but he’s
right. Even if we gave you a weapon, would you know how to use
it?”
“I could learn.”
“In two days?”
Still she stood her ground. “Well
what are you going to do, turn around and take me back?”
“No. We can’t very well do
that now.” Meta Knight said, turning away. “Joe… maybe
you could show her some basic defense moves. It would be
something at least.”
Joe mumbled something
inaudible. “Yeah yeah…”
Fumu left then, presumably to
her room. Kirby started to follow, but then wasn’t quite
sure. He looked at Meta Knight. “Meda angry?”
“You could say that… I’ll
be in my quarters.” He left as well, Sword and Blade
stepping out of his way. Joe was next, Kirby tagging along
behind. Silica shook her head at this turn of events.
Hopefully it wouldn’t be too much of a problem…
She paused as she walked by
Sword and Blade, looking at both of them intently.
“…What?” Sword said,
lifting an eyebrow.
“I always thought you two
were robots or something,” she remarked with a small shrug.
“We get that a lot.” Blade
said. “Well… it’ll be about six hours until we
rendezvous with the other ship, so we should make some
preparations…”
“I’ll help,” she grinned.
“I think you two are about the only normal ones sometimes.”
Kirby could see the merchant
ship on the front view screen, getting larger as they
approached. It wouldn’t be long now. “Poyo…” he
glanced back at the others. Meta Knight’s eyes were
unreadable, while Joe looked somewhat worried. Kirby found
that odd, as so little really bothered the boy… Silica was
helping Sword and Blade set the ship’s course, and Fumu
stood off by herself.
“Opening a connection…”
Sword announced. He pressed a sequence of buttons and the main
view screen flickered before a rather gruff looking man of an
almost frog-like species appeared on it.
“Whad’ya want?” he asked
in a slurred version of the common language.
Meta Knight stepped forward.
“We’re on a long voyage and we wish to trade for necessary
supplies.”
“Trade, eh? Whatcha got?”
“We have a small stock of
energy weapons and some valuable minerals.”
The frogman put his hand to his
chin. “Well, we’re always lookin’ ta add to our weapon
collection. Get yer ship to our starboard side, that’s where
our docking bay is.”
“Very well.” The screen
went black. “Well, so far so good… Sword, Blade- are the
other preparations complete?”
“Yes sir. Everything should
be ready,” Sword replied. “Once we’re in, this ship will
detach and continue on the course we’ve set.”
“How many on the other ship?”
“We can detect four people on
the bridge. It’s the standard for a merchant vessel that
size, so there shouldn’t be any more,” Blade said. “Once
we’re on, there should be a secure place to lock them up.
The ship is a lot slower than this one, so it will take a
little longer to reach the base. It also has little in the way
of offense or defense…”
“Then we have to make sure no
one wants to attack us. As it is, this ship is a well known
target.” Meta Knight wondered for a moment why they hadn’t
been attacked again so far. There was a feeling he couldn’t
quite shake… Then again, anything they did now had its
risks.
There was a shudder as their
ship connected to the other, opening a path between them to
transport goods.
“Let’s get going already!”
Joe exclaimed. “We’ve been standing around way too long.”
“Poyo!” Kirby agreed. The
two of them hurried out, followed by Silica, Sword and Blade.
Fumu hesitated, looking to Meta Knight.
“This is what you wanted,”
he said, glancing over at her.
“I know…” she said
quietly, “but I won’t be a burden.”
Meta Knight said nothing,
leaving the control room. She followed a few moments after.
Thankfully this step of the
plan was the easy one. Joe and Silica made short work of the
crew, locking them up in a small jail cell on the lower level.
Meta Knight spoke with the captain, telling him only that he
would require him to contact other ships if necessary- and
that failure to do so would result in him being jettisoned
from an airlock.
Meta Knight watched as their
ship flew off into the distance, becoming a speck and then
vanishing among millions of star. It would serve as a good
decoy for now. They would continue along the merchant ship’s
original path, arriving a short time later. Though he imagined
that, upon finding that ship empty, Nightmare’s forces might
be more suspicious of other vessels…
“We’ll arrive in two days
or so, if nothing happens,” Blade said, sounding a bit
frustrated with the old ship’s controls. He, Sword and Meta
Knight were the only ones on the bridge.
“I wonder if I’ve made the
right decision,” Meta Knight said quietly.
“About taking this ship? I
think it was a good idea, Sir…” Sword said. “Considering
the circumstances, I’m not sure what else we could be doing
now. There aren’t many options.”
“True…” Things didn’t
seem hopeless, but it could be better. “You two have been
running the ship since we started. Go get some rest; I can
watch things for now.”
“Oh, er, we’re fine,
really,” Blade stammered.
“That’s an order. Go, both
of you.”
“Thank you, Sir… We’ll be
back in a while.” Sword smiled. “We did remember to bring
our food supplies on board, right? I don’t even want to
think about they might have to eat on this scrapheap…”
“We got most of it, don’t
worry.”
“Thank goodness…”
Meta Knight listened as their
voices faded down the hallway. He looked over the controls and
computers. They were old, but it was a system he was familiar
with. Being on this slow, bulky ship didn’t give him much
peace of mind, but it was too late to worry about such things
now.
Now they waited.
Kirby walked down unfamiliar
hallways, feet squeaking and echoing off the rust streaked
walls. He didn’t like this ship. It was old and creaky and
he just didn’t like it. And he was pretty sure he was lost.
“Poyoo…” he whimpered. He
was embarrassed more than scared though. He was supposed to be
a soldier who saved everyone, and here he was getting lost.
“Fumu? Joe?” he called, his
voice echoing back to him. No answer. He sighed, toddling
along and realizing that he was also hungry. Alone, lost and
hungry. It wasn’t really his day.
The little Star Warrior turned
a corner then, and was quite surprised and happy to find Joe
sitting there on a bunch of boxes set in a corner. But the boy
didn’t seem to even notice him at first, staring out a small
window in the wall next to him.
“Joe!” Kirby squeaked,
jumping onto a crate next to him. Joe flinched in surprise,
getting into a defensive position right away. He relaxed as he
saw who it was.
“Jeez, don’t do that…”
“Sowwy Joe…” Kirby said,
sitting down next to him. “What wrong?”
“Eh?”
“Joe not happy? Get to fight
bad guys.”
“Oh yeah… I am.”
“Joe look sad…”
“I’m fine, really. Why do
you care?”
Kirby titled his body to one
side. “Worried.”
Joe was quiet at first. “Don’t
worry about me, okay?” He looked out the window again, knees
up against his chest. He suddenly laughed. “I can’t
believe myself. Here we are trying to save the universe and I’m
hung up over my own stupid problems.”
“Not stupid…” Kirby
assured him. He noticed then something Joe had in his hands.
It looked like a photograph. “What that?”
Joe glanced over at him,
holding out the photo so he could see. “I’ve told you
about him before. Don’t you remember?”
Kirby nodded, only vaguely
remembering that time over a year ago. “Gaadell?” he said,
having a hard time saying the name clearly.
Joe smiled. “Yeah. Well I
found him again… Or he found me.”
“Poyo?” Kirby looked up
from the picture. He smiled, vaguely remembering how Joe had
told him they had been friends. “Joe not happy?”
“I wanted to see him again…
But I’m not sure if I should have.”
“Poyo… But… Gaadell Joe
friend…” Kirby didn’t see what was so confusing about
this.
“…It’s more complicated
than that. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Maybe I would, in that case.”
Joe and Kirby looked up in
shock as Silica walked around the corner, arms crossed.
“H-How long have you been
there?” Joe exclaimed angrily, amazed at himself for not
noticing.
“Long enough… You’ve been
acting weird since you got back. You know perfectly well this
situation is serious. You can’t let yourself get preoccupied
over other things right now.”
“Shut up.” Joe stood, his
hands balled into fists at his side. “You’re the last
person I need lecturing me right now.”
“I’m not lecturing. Maybe I
just want to know what’s going on.”
“That’s not any of your
business.”
“It sounds like it is. Wasn’t
this Gardell person the one who gave us the information about
this ship? How do you really know this isn’t all some trap?”
“Because he wouldn’t do
that!” Joe shouted. “I know we can trust him.”
“Then what the hell are you
whining about? Something about that guy is bothering you,
which leads me to believe he might not be so damned
trustworthy!” she snapped.
“You don’t know what you’re
talking about.”
“Tell me then.”
Joe averted his eyes a moment.
“He was someone I met a few years ago when I first ran away
from my aunt’s place… He let me stay with him for a while
and he helped me out. He’s… He’s a good person. He
wouldn’t do anything to hurt me, or the people I know. He
doesn’t have any reason to.”
“Sounds like a manipulative
creep to me.”
“Shut up! You’ve never even
met him.”
She scoffed. “I’m not
stupid. I’ve met my fair share of nice people who tried to
stab you in the back later. That guy could have used his
connection to you in order to get at Meta Knight and Kirby.”
“He would never work for
Nightmare. Nothing in the world would make him do that.”
“Then why the hell are you so
upset?! If he’s such a good person like you say…” Silica
asked intently, now standing right in front of him.
Joe wasn’t used to being
confronted like this. He didn’t talk about his problems-
usually his problems could be dealt with by beating the shit
out of them until they went away. Silica was becoming a
tempting target. “It doesn’t have anything to do with
that.”
“You’re not convincing me.”
Kirby stood by helplessly. He
didn’t like the way they were fighting, but he didn’t want
to get between them either. “Poyo…”
“It… It doesn’t have
anything to do with this. It’s personal, all right?”
“You don’t think we can
trust him, do you? I can see by how you’re acting.”
“No! It’s not…” Joe
shook his head. “It’s nothing to do with that, for the
last time!” He shoved her. “Get away!”
She shoved back. “I don’t
care how much you think of that guy as a friend, there’s a
chance you’re being used and it could hurt all of us.” Her
tone softened somewhat. “And maybe I’m worried about one
of my friends, all right?”
That took Joe off guard
somewhat. He stood back, looking away. “I can’t… I don’t
even know what the problem is, okay? I just… I don’t know…”
He was so frustrated and he couldn’t help it. He berated
himself over getting so upset in the first place…
“Listen… Joe. It would be
better to get this figured out now than for it to keep
bothering you later. It would be a distraction if you were
fighting or something, right?”
“…Yeah…” Joe sat back
on one of the boxes, looking down at the plated floor. “Kirby
knows some of it, but he doesn’t really understand… He’s
a good listener, but he can’t do much else. No offense.”
“Poyo.” Kirby smiled.
Silica did as well. “Tell me
about this guy, then.”
Meta Knight hadn’t been
paying as much attention to his surroundings as he should
have, and when he finally saw Fumu standing nearby he wasn’t
sure how long she’d be standing there.
“…Yes?”
She bit her lower lip. “I’m
sorry about coming here. After you said not to…”
He sighed, mostly out of
exhaustion than annoyance with her. “I really should have
expected it. You’re far too stubborn for your own good…
But it may not be as much of a problem as I said. I shouldn’t
have gotten so angry with you.”
Fumu smiled a little. “Well,
I guess you’re under a lot of pressure.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“Isn’t there anything I can
do to help everyone?” she said, realizing that so far she
really hadn’t been doing anything. “Joe was showing me
some defense techniques earlier but he was kind of distracted…”
“Hm… Later we’ll see if
there are some smaller weapons that you could use. Ever used a
gun?”
“No…”
“It doesn’t take very much
training to pull a trigger… For now, perhaps you could learn
about this ship’s computer systems.”
“I’ve never used a computer
either…”
“Don’t worry, this one isn’t
terribly complicated.”
He showed her some of the basic
controls for a few moments, before she suddenly changed the
subject as she remembered.
“What ever happened with you
and Jarle?”
“Hm? Oh… She doesn’t want
to kill me quite as much any more. It’s a lot of progress,
really.”
She laughed, and then looked a
bit worried. “I wonder if Bun will be okay with her…”
“He’ll be fine. It will be
a good life experience for him…” He wasn’t sure if he
should pity the boy or not. Still, Jarle wouldn’t hurt him
or anything. Not much.
“But he’ll be so mad to
know I left without him…”
“Why didn’t you bring him?”
She laughed a bit nervously.
“It's too dangerous…”
“It’s for the best, then.”
It was quiet for a moment as
Meta Knight checked some of the readings from the engine. The
ship was old but stable at least.
“Does it still bother you?”
Fumu asked suddenly.
“Does what bother me?”
“About… Joe’s father and
everything. When you left that one night, I thought that was
why…”
He didn’t answer right away,
focusing on the screen in front of him. His voice was soft.
“You’d think after a decade a memory would start to fade.
I’ve seen more people die than you will probably ever know
in your life, but this one happens to be a particularly
painful memory for me… Maybe he could have been saved, but
we’ll never know…”
She looked away. “Sorry for
bringing it up…”
“It’s all right.”
She watched him for a few
moments before deciding to change the subject again. “Remember
back in Dreamland, you were talking about some stories about
Star Warriors?”
He paused for a moment. “Vaguely.
Why?”
“Well… I’ve been curious
ever since. I’ve never even asked about what you or Kirby
really are… Or why only he can defeat Nightmare.” She
leaned over the console, head resting on her arms.
“I see…” Meta Knight
thought it over for a moment, gathering scattered memories of
the legends. “No doubt Kabu told you about Kirby’s
origins?”
“Yeah… He was really
created by Nightmare?”
He nodded solemnly. “He was
created to be a fearsome enemy, but for some reason… he wasn’t
like the others. He had a pure soul...”
“Kabu said you’re the one
who told him about it.”
“Yes, I was the one who found
Kirby then…”
Fumu sat up a little, eyes
wide. “You found him?”
“I don’t know what happened
after he disobeyed Nightmare,” he continued, old memories
flooding back. “But I found him near one of their bases,
barely alive. It was a stroke of luck that I did… Fate
perhaps. I had heard about the plans to create a demon that
could gain any power…”
“What did you do?”
“He was only an infant.
Nightmare normally causes his creations to age rapidly, but
not in this case. He had been based on my own race, so I knew
it could take centuries for him to mature. I put him in one of
our ships and sent him to a part of the universe where
Nightmare’s darkness hadn’t spread in hopes he would be
safe until he was old enough to fight.”
Fumu waited to ask more
questions. “I thought you said you went to serve Dedede
because you wanted the ships to home in on demons…”
Meta Knight laughed. “Yes,
but I didn’t expect it to be him. At least it all turned out
fairly well… Kirby is progressing much faster than I would
have expected…”
“And if he hadn’t woken up,
wouldn’t that mean Nightmare wouldn’t have anyone to stop
him?” Fumu pointed out.
“True…” Meta Knight
tapped his fingers on the console thoughtfully. “The new
generation never came.”
“Huh?”
“I searched for years to find
the new generation of Star Warriors. And I haven’t found any
aside from Kirby. It’s curious, don’t you think?”
Fumu shrugged. “Well, I guess
so… Maybe it’s too soon? Maybe they’re all still babies,
but most babies aren’t like Kirby.”
He smiled. “Yes… That’s
true… Well then, we should see about getting you a decent
weapon. Come with me; their supply room should be over here…”
Kirby couldn’t help dozing
off a bit as Joe spoke to Silica. He just got tired a lot; it
didn’t mean he was bored. He yawned, rubbing his eyes and
leaning against him a little. He liked being near Joe, he felt
very happy then. Kind of like eating and sleeping in his
favorite tree made him happy. It was just a very deep down,
content feeling. But then again, Joe was upset so he really
couldn’t be that happy…
Silica listened more closely,
though she had no idea what to say. Even though Joe was being
sparse with details, what he had said was completely not what
she’d expected.
Joe glanced up to see her
expression and immediately regretted telling her anything. “If
you’re just going to look at me like I’m a freak, then get
away from me.”
“No, no it’s not…” she
waved her hands quickly in front of her. “I’m… Joe I
have no idea what to think of that…”
He wasn’t looking at her. “I’ll
get over it. We have more important things to worry about, don’t
we?”
Silica was at a loss. She’d
wanted to try and give him some advice, but now she wasn’t
sure if she could say anything helpful. “Joe… why did you
stay with him? Just to have a roof over your head and food?”
“It was more than that… No
one had ever treated me like he did. Not my aunt, not anyone.
I wasn’t just an annoying kid that had been dumped off on
him. He wanted me to be there.”
She glanced over at Kirby, who
was half asleep. “What are you so unsure about then?”
“…Because I think I was a
replacement for someone else.”
Her brow furrowed. “What do
you mean?”
Joe was quiet for a long
moment. “A little while before I left… I found some of his
old photos. There was a picture of a boy there…” He
frowned, his expression briefly surprised, but he shook his
head and continued. “He really freaked out when he saw me
looking at them. He said how much he’d loved him, and got
really upset when I said I had to leave… He said he wouldn’t
let me.”
“And what happened when you
went to see him again?”
“…I really thought about
not going, but I’d really wanted to see him again. So I
went.”
Silica sat down on another
crate, nodding as she listened.
“And… I mean he was just
like always. We talked and…” he coughed. “W-We talked.
And he gave me some things and… he said how he’d missed me
and… and that when all this was over that I could be with
him again. He said to meet up with him again. He’d wait for
me.”
Kirby rolled over a bit, trying
to get more comfortable. He didn’t understand all this. But
he was thinking of what he could do to cheer Joe up later.
Maybe Joe liked watermelons? Well he couldn’t imagine how
anyone couldn’t. Kirby had one stashed away for a special
occasion. Hopefully it was still good. “Poyo…”
Silica watched Joe’s
expressions carefully. He really did trust this Gardell
person, she realized. Maybe she really didn’t understand,
she thought. She’d never met him. But something about it
still bothered her… She knew she wasn’t going to be able
to change Joe’s mind on it. He was too hardheaded, even like
this.
She chewed her lower lip for a
moment, debating in her mind. “Joe… Maybe… maybe next
time you meet him you should ask about it.”
“Huh?”
“Just ask him! Come right out
and demand to know if he’s really… using you to replace
some other person he knew. Maybe he won’t come out and say
it, but I bet it’ll be easy to tell.”
Joe’s ears perked up a bit.
“…I never really thought to ask.”
“Well, there’s your
problem. You’re not acting normal at all. You always attack
things head on, why is this any different? Ask and if he’s
just trying to replace someone else he lost, then forget him.
But don’t worry about it for now, all right? It’s not
doing you any good.” She contemplated patting him on the
shoulder, but Joe didn’t seem like he’d appreciate the
gesture. “Anyway… I need to go see how things are up on
the bridge…”
He nodded. “Yeah… thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.” She
grinned, despite how unsettling the conversation had been. “See
you both later.”
After she was gone, Joe sighed
and looked over at a still drowsy Kirby. “She makes it sound
way too easy… But, I guess there’s not much else I can do.”
“Poy…”
Joe looked out the window for
another moment before jumping to his feet. Robbed of someone
to lean against, Kirby rolled to the side, blinking in sudden
confusion as Joe ran down the hallway.
“Poyo?” Just when he was
getting comfortable. Oh well, he thought. He’d have to go
find something to eat now.
